EU Debates Ukraine Candidacy

Kyiv, Ukraine, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Jun, 2022 ) :EU leaders will gather in Brussels Thursday to discuss calls to formally grant Ukraine "candidate status" to join the bloc, as Russian forces slowly advance in the eastern Donbas region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had been conducting a "telephone marathon" on his country's behalf in the run-up to the meeting, making his country's case to 11 European leaders on Wednesday alone.

"We are preparing for the historic decision of the European Council. There are only a few hours remaining before it," he said in his daily address.

But while the European Commission-backed candidacy is widely expected to be approved, some members have been lukewarm about Ukraine's status, and any accession process is likely to take years if not decades.

On the ground in eastern Ukraine's battleground Donbas, massive Russian bombardments are making life "hell", Kyiv said Wednesday.

Moscow's troops have been pummeling the Lugansk region and the strategically important city of Severodonetsk for weeks and are slowly advancing, despite fierce resistance from the outgunned Ukrainian military.

With President Vladimir Putin's forces tightening their grip on Severodonetsk, its twin city of Lysychansk -- located just across the Donets river -- is now coming under heavier bombardment.

Taking the two cities would give Moscow control of the whole of Lugansk, allowing Russia to press further into Donbas.

"The Russian army is... just destroying everything" in Lysychansk, Sergiy Gaiday, governor of the Lugansk region, which includes both cities, wrote on Telegram.

"It's just hell out there," after four months of shelling in Severodonetsk, he wrote later.

"Our boys are holding their positions and will continue to hold on as long as necessary," he added.

Pro-Russian separatists claimed they were close to surrounding both Lysychansk and Severodonetsk.

"Over the past several days, enormous work has been accomplished," Andrei Marochko, an officer in the separatist army of Lugansk, told Russian state television.